Menu

While the vast majority of high-tech startups fail (stats range from 75 percent to 90 percent), they are still a key driver of job creation in the United States. However, with the unique opportunities typically associated with working at a high-tech startup, there are also risks that the job seeker should carefully evaluate, say experts at Harris Allied, a New York City-based executive search firm.

“The Alibaba IPO is a good barometer for what is expected to be a hot market for tech startups. We are already seeing high-tech startups outpacing the private sector in terms of job creation. While these companies have lean beginnings, they grow rapidly in the early years, adding jobs along the way, often at a greater velocity than other kinds of small business. But there are some inherent risks in accepting employment at the wrong startup that should be carefully weighed when considering an offer,” says Kathy Harris, managing director of Harris Allied. “A job seeker needs to look beyond their fun and enticing workplace cultures and see clearly that their failure rates can destroy jobs as well.”

Harris says job-seekers should evaluate the following when considering employment opportunities with a high-tech startup:

How much funding does the company really have? Is it funded with “friends and family” money or is it venture-capital-backed? If it is VC-backed, what state of fund raising is it at? How long can the company stay in business with its current cash supply?

How does the startup fit into the larger scope of the industry? Is there a real need for the product or service that the company offers? Where is the opportunity for it to thrive and succeed? Look at the firm’s competitors and ask how the firm fits into its market space. Does it offer a significant uptick within the industry or does it do or offer something innovative? What obstacles does the company face when breaking into the marketplace? What are the real opportunities to generate revenue and what are the triggers that will make this company profitable?

Who are the principals and what is their track record in starting and running companies? Has the management team made money in the past? Who is actually running the company day-to-day and do they have hands-on experience in dealing with legal, compliance, cost containment and regulatory matters, for example? In a startup, there are not many people to delegate those responsibilities to. Does each member bring with them unique expertise that collectively makes for a strong executive team? What relevant industry experience do they have? Do the principals have experience with small companies or have they bootstrapped a startup before? Have they had experience generating revenue and building a business that does not have a big brand name?

What is the growth plan for the business 3, 6, 9 and 12 months out? This is a fair question for a candidate to ask, but it needs to be asked in the correct manner. Private companies are not quick to disclose their revenue projections, but you can ask about the company’s plans for expansion and growing market share. How will the startup grow its customer base and what kinds of customers will it target? Is the firm targeting a single vertical or are there plans to diversify the business focus? What size client will the firm target? A key consideration when evaluating a job offer is whether the firm is limited to a small number of clients.

Is an IPO in its future? What is the exit strategy? Ask about equity participation – is it part of the compensation plan and, if so, what kind of liquidity event is planned? Most startups will offer equity to people that join the firm in its earliest stages, so a job seeker needs to inquire what that really means in terms of the growth of the company.

Final Thoughts

“The answers to these questions should absolutely factor into a job seeker’s decision to accept a position with a high-tech startup. Just as important, however, is the job-seeker’s own stage of life. If you have a young and growing family and would like to purchase a home, a high-tech startup may be too risky a move for you given their rate of failure or some potentially lean early years. However, their compelling workplace environments, the opportunity to get your hands on cutting-edge technology, and a chance to grow something from its infancy can be very attractive to savvy high-tech professionals,” says Harris.

Check out these nine key things that you can avoid in order to increase your emotional intelligence and performance.

1. They Won’t Let Anyone Limit Their Joy

When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. When emotionally intelligent people feel good about something that they’ve done, they won’t let anyone’s opinions or accomplishments take that away from them.

While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don’t have to compare yourself to others, and you can always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within. Regardless of what people think of you at any particular moment, one thing is certain—you’re never as good or bad as they say you are.

2. They Won’t Forget

Emotionally intelligent people are quick to forgive, but that doesn’t mean that they forget. Forgiveness requires letting go of what’s happened so that you can move on. It doesn’t mean you’ll give a wrongdoer another chance. Emotionally intelligent people are unwilling to be bogged down unnecessarily by others’ mistakes, so they let them go quickly and are assertive in protecting themselves from future harm.

3. They Won’t Die in the Fight

Emotionally intelligent people know how important it is to live to fight another day. In conflict, unchecked emotion makes you dig your heels in and fight the kind of battle that can leave you severely damaged. When you read and respond to your emotions, you’re able to choose your battles wisely and only stand your ground when the time is right.

4. They Won’t Prioritize Perfection

Emotionally intelligent people won’t set perfection as their target because they know it doesn’t exist. Human beings, by our very nature, are fallible. When perfection is your goal, you’re always left with a nagging sense of failure, and you end up spending your time lamenting what you failed to accomplish and what you should have done differently instead of enjoying what you were able to achieve.

5. They Won’t Live in the Past

Failure can erode your self-confidence and make it hard to believe you’ll achieve a better outcome in the future. Most of the time, failure results from taking risks and trying to achieve something that isn’t easy. Emotionally intelligent people know that success lies in their ability to rise in the face of failure, and they can’t do this when they’re living in the past. Anything worth achieving is going to require you to take some risks, and you can’t allow failure to stop you from believing in your ability to succeed. When you live in the past, that is exactly what happens, and your past becomes your present, preventing you from moving forward.

6. They Won’t Dwell on Problems

Where you focus your attention determines your emotional state. When you fixate on the problems that you’re facing, you create and prolong negative emotions and stress, which hinders performance. When you focus on actions to better yourself and your circumstances, you create a sense of personal efficacy that produces positive emotions and improves performance. Emotionally intelligent people won’t dwell on problems because they know they’re most effective when they focus on solutions.

7. They Won’t Hang Around Negative People

Complainers are bad news because they wallow in their problems and fail to focus on solutions. They want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. People often feel pressure to listen to complainers because they don’t want to be seen as callous or rude, but there’s a fine line between lending a sympathetic ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional spiral. You can avoid getting drawn in only by setting limits and distancing yourself when necessary. Think of it this way: if a person were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke? You’d distance yourself, and you should do the same with complainers. A great way to set limits is to ask complainers how they intend to fix a problem. The complainer will then either quiet down or redirect the conversation in a productive direction.

8. They Won’t Hold Grudges

The negative emotions that come with holding onto a grudge are actually a stress response. Just thinking about the event involved sends your body into fight-or-flight mode. When a threat is imminent, this reaction is essential to your survival, but when a threat is ancient history, holding onto that stress wreaks havoc on your body and can have devastating health consequences over time. In fact, researchers at Emory University have shown that holding onto stress contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease. Holding onto a grudge means you’re holding onto stress, and emotionally intelligent people know to avoid this at all costs. Learning to let go of a grudge will not only make you feel better now but can also improve your health.

9. They Won’t Say Yes Unless They Really Want To

Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression. Saying no is indeed a major challenge for most people. “No” is a powerful word that you should not be afraid to wield. When it’s time to say no, emotionally intelligent people avoid phrases like “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill them.

There are many people who feel that we’re all going to have to work harder to hang on those good employees and temps because the job market is heating up. They have more choices, there will be lots of job jumping, blah, blah blah.

A couple of organizational behavior experts over in Europe have come out with a counter-intuitive viewpoint contending that firms can actually benefit from losing employees. Here are three benefits….

Gaining information about what competitors are doing is critical. When people move from one company to another they often maintain contact with their former employers, while creating new connections in the new place of employment. These contacts result in an informal communication bridge between the two and through this bridge the ‘source’ can learn what is going on at competitors.

Departed employees can be a source influence in the industry. This is because departed employees expose competitors to the previous employers operating philosophies and principles, which may lead to an increase in the industry’s perception of that company.

Departures enable organizational turnover. When employees and/or temps leave, they provide room for new people to come with their unique experiences from the outside. This brings in fresh ideas, positively impacting creative performance.

Top companies who know this and do not hesitate to ask their young analysts to leave for a while, before coming back as associates. Let them come back if they wish; some degree of turnover is good for employers and for employees.

Of course, the researchers say too many departures can be bad. They found after a certain point too much loss disrupts day-to-day operations.

That it is recommended that companies develop strategies for managing departed talent, in addition to strategies for keeping the existing talent.

Bottom line? Letting some people go is healthy and the biggest beneficiaries of talent loss will be firms which recognize that departed employees and their networks are important drivers of competitive advantage.

“In the 21st century the whole global economy should learn how to benefit from well-managed professional mobility.”

Are you buying it? Or do you think it’s a bunch of BS from some academicians from across the pond who don’t live in the real world? Let us know.

Researches show, the recruiters and the employers spend less than 30 seconds to go through a resume and determine whether you have what it requires to move to the next phase of the hiring process. According to the study conducted by The Ladders.com, your resume just receive 6.25 seconds of scrutiny time. They use an eye-tracking software to realise the way recruiters actually scan resumes. Within that few minutes, your fate is decided- your resume will either be added to that successful pile that worth a phone call or it will be rejected to increase the land filth.

Passing the first phase can be really difficult. Moreover, if the CV is rejected, most of the applicants get frustrated. Most of the time, a job seeker has the confidence that profile is perfect for him or her. The recruiters must have also understood that if they have gone through the entire CV. Unfortunately, they will not delineate such a long time to scan your resume.

If you already have a resume, it is worthwhile to consider whether it is overflowing with information than the readers may like to see. Your CV needs to be comprehensive including only the relevant details that will help the readers pass your CV to the next level.

How will you represent the resume?

Like many other people in the service sectors, employers and recruiters work under strict deadlines. They have to select a right candidate for a job position within limited time span. A job advertisement usually generates heaps of applications. The recruiters cannot spend enough times going through what you have written in the CV. With that quick glance through a pile of CVs, the recruiters actually look for the ones that are truly impressive. So, do not include too many details about your projects or the company you have worked with. Such details are unnecessary.

You have to make sure that your CV is easily navigable with the information clearly presented in bite size chunks. While crafting the resume, it is vital to keep in mind that the readers can scan the salient points within 30 seconds. Usually recruiters look for the following details:

Name

Current job title/Company name

Past Experiences

Education

The rest of the details that you provide, will hopefully be skipped. You have to present the information in an organized manner, putting the most important information on the top. You may highlight the texts or bullet the points. That does not mean that you will use this tactic throughout. Use them sparingly, to draw the attention of the readers to the most vital points in your CV. Unless you are a complete fresher, put the educational details at the end of the paper.

Do your resume need a photograph?

Attaching a photo in the resume is not necessary. If the job profile is something like online self-promotion, a photo may be required, otherwise do not provide one. If there is a photograph in a paper, it will consume maximum concentration of the recruiters. They will only be left with a few seconds of their precious time to go through the essential information and determine whether you qualify for the job. A photo will not help them to decide whether you are fit for the job or not.

There are several recruiters who do not even look at the resumes with photos. If a job position requires you to submit a photograph, it will be mentioned in the advertisement.

How to format the resume?

CVs should not be any longer than 2 pages. That does not mean you will represent as much information as you can fit putting away the spaces from the paper. However, such a CV will soon be rejected. Narrow margins, clean fonts and sufficient gaps within the lines help to guide the readers’ eyes. Times New Roman and Arial are the two most common fonts used in the resume.

To make separate section of your CV to stand out, use heading in bold fonts. The font-size of the headline will be slightly larger than the general fonts you have used throughout the resume. You can include a table to surface the educational details in the resume. It is very useful to display grades. After you are done, you can make the lines of the table invisible as well. Your data will appear in proper rows and columns and it will be easy for the readers to follow.

Some jobs demand creative resumes, but all of them do not. Therefore, analyse the job role before formatting a resume for that position. For most of the jobs you need to have a clean resume highlighting your key strengths.

How do you keep your search moving forward in the summer? Our experts offer these tips:

Capitalize on Seasonal Events: “Summer is a terrific time to network,” says Terwelp. “There are festivals, barbeques, weddings and other gatherings that can be a perfect time to connect.” Fortgang says that using personal and social gatherings to let people know you are looking is an excellent strategy.

Don’t Get Discouraged: Summer vacations may make reaching the right people more challenging, but don’t use this as a reason to back off, Fortgang says. “Be patient and consistent, leave polite messages and continue due diligence,” she says. Keep in mind that receptionists and other gatekeepers take vacations, too. “You might connect with that otherwise hard-to-reach hiring manager while your competitors are lolling around waiting until September,” says Ditta.

Keep a Job Search Schedule: Yes, it’s summer, but don’t be lulled into laziness. “Even if it is just an hour a day, put structure in place to keep you going,” says Fortgang.

Build a Network: “Form a group of like-minded job seekers to keep your summer job search on track,” Fortgang suggests. Meet regularly to share information on who’s hiring. A job opportunity not right for you may be perfect for someone in your network, and vice versa.

Take Stock of Your Resume and Skills: Summer is the perfect time to assess and update your resume and skills. “Review your resume and add any new accomplishments or training,” Terwelp says. Also, brush up on any skills that may be lagging. “Take a class or two in the summer. Not only will you be improving your skills, but you can network with your classmates.”

Get Outside: Warm weather is the prime time for outdoor home improvement projects, and by helping your neighbors you can help your career at the same time. Walk around your neighborhood and offer to give someone a hand. While you’re helping that neighbor, you can share that you’re job hunting and tap into someone else’s network. “This can lead to more connections, information and maybe even a new job,” says Terwelp.

When it comes to your job search, summer doesn’t have to mean slow. While that perfect swimsuit may remain elusive, you can use the summer months to find an ideal career fit. Your time and effort can reap big rewards and even land you a new job before autumn. The key is to be positive! 🙂

Since the official end of the Great Recession, the news has been inundated with reports about what matters most now to job seekers. How has the recession affected our values in the positions we seek, and the positions we have? How many experienced workers gave up the large paycheck or flexibility in exchange for job security?

No matter where you are in this job search, you know the salary you must make in order to make a job worth your while. Today’s employee wants to thrive off their salary, not just cover expenses and “make ends meet.” Before you go into the interview process, it is a great time to review how you negotiate a higher salary.

Start at a high amount, and negotiate down. Showing your enthusiasm for the position, begin the discussion with an “optimal amount” above what you need to make, but that is fair for the position you are considering. You and the employer can work from there to find a middle ground that is comfortable for both parties.

Demonstrate your value to the company’s bottom line. Be confident in your skills and experience level. Provide examples of how you could use your skills to increase company sales, improve customer service, and accomplish the organization’s missions directly. If you are asking for $5,000 more in salary, justify that amount in savings you can provide the company, or projects you can complete that will bring in even more revenue.

Look beyond base pay for other ways to increase your pay. If an employer will not budge from their first offer, as many employers will do in a recovering (but not yet fully recovered) economy, you can inquire about additional vacation days, an early salary review, and the possibility of bonuses based on job performance.

As you apply for each position, you can put together a game plan for how you will negotiate your ideal salary.

So you’ve networked successfully or reached out directly to employers and landed an interview, now what can you do to capitalize on this opportunity and convert it to a job offer for the summer? Effective preparation, delivery and follow up will all be critical to your success. Here are the top ten tips for successfully interviewing for a summer job:
Prepare! Think of successful past experiences as a student, athlete, volunteer, employee, and friend or with school activities. Identify the skills or qualities which enabled you to do well in those situations. Be ready to share statements referencing those strengths and to give examples of how and when you tapped those assets.

Practice a 30 word statement underscoring why you want the job and how you have the right stuff to excel in that role. Rehearse in front of the mirror, with parents, advisors or other trusted individuals.

Review all the experiences listed on your application and/or resume and be ready to answer questions about them like what was challenging about that role, why you left the job, what you learned and your biggest accomplishments.

Dress more nicely than you would in everyday life. Think neat church clothing. Have your parents inspect your outfit before departing for your interview.

Avoid excessive make up, piercings and wild hairdos. Present the image that your employer would want for their clientele. You can always readjust your grooming once you leave the interview and see your friends.

Enthusiasm and a positive attitude really count with summer job interviews. All things being equal, the eager, upbeat young candidate will be much more likely to get an offer. Smile often, use a lively vocal tone and focus on the positive at all times. Verbalize to the employer that you would really like the job and work hard to do well.

If you don’t have all the skills or experiences required for the job, it is best to honestly admit that fact if asked but emphasize your eagerness to learn and ability to learn quickly.

Express as much flexibility as honestly possible regarding hours worked and start dates. If you can start in the spring or continue in the fall while in school, it may be a distinct advantage with some employers.

Compose a thank you note as soon as possible after your interview expressing your appreciation for the meeting and excitement about the possibility of working there this summer. Include a photo to help them remember you. Check in periodically with your employer after the interview and express your continued interest.

Remember that there are many fish in the sea of summer employers, so be yourself, do your best, but don’t put too much pressure on yourself to succeed in any one interview.

Time Management is something a lot of people struggle with. In recruiting you have so many things going on at once that it could be tough getting a grasp on your goals and priorities. Here are some tips that may be helpful for you to have more success.

Utilize Systems That Work For YouThis could be something as simple as a to-do list or using sticky notes. After you create a list with your daily tasks, determine what tasks are going to have the quickest impact for generating revenue. Those should be the first tasks you complete. Chances are you have one or more calendaring systems and other applications for productivity. Take advantage of them. Productivity tools are there to help you.

For example, use your CRM system to document notes from all sales and recruiting calls, meetings and interviews. Be sure to use the built-in calendaring system to schedule your follow-up tasks. Every client and candidate interaction should have an action item associated with it. Scheduling the follow-up task (action item) is critical. By doing this your CRM system will create a list of tasks such as phone calls or emails that you have to complete every day.

Are You a Morning Person or a Night Owl?Figure out what time of day you produce your best work product. Schedule your most challenging tasks during this time. For example, if you have a big presentation coming up for a prospect and you do your best work in the early morning, schedule it in the morning. Don’t schedule it for late afternoon when you’re tired. Furthermore, prepare for that presentation in the early morning.

For recruiters, you should build time into your weekly schedule to call candidates at night between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. The best candidates are not able to talk at work. Contact them after hours. For sales professionals, decision makers often can often only be reached between 7:00 a.m. and 8:30 am and between 5:00 pm and 7:00 p.m, They’re in meetings the rest of the day. Do your pre-call planning and research around these times. Plan to start your day early and work late.

Measure Results, Not ActivityIt’s really easy to fall into the trap of keeping and feeling busy but producing nothing. I see this happen all the time. Don’t confuse activity with results. Measure your results or outcomes, not your activity. For example, the most common measurement in our industry is number of phone calls for both sales and recruiting. At the end of the day it’s really about how many new hiring managers (or candidates) you qualify and add to your CRM system or job orders you uncover. So measure that, not the number of phone calls.

Create a “Stop Doing” ListIn his book, Good To Great. Jim Collins suggests that those who build good-to-great companies made as much use of “stop doing” lists as they did “to do” lists. Most people live busy but undisciplined lives. We have ever-expanding to-do lists where we try to do more and more but it rarely works. If it doesn’t help grow your business, stop doing it. Try to adopt the self discipline of unplugging yourself from your “busy work.”

Staffing professionals often place a higher priority on completing their “to-do’s” (candidate applications and other related paperwork, entering candidate and client data into their database and responding to email) over revenue generating tasks, such as making sales calls, cold calling or visiting clients. All of these tasks need to be completed but if the revenue generating tasks never take priority your book of business will never grow. Reacting to every client request and email “on the spot” is often the biggest reason why staffing professionals fail to achieve their daily goals. The next time you have a “client emergency,” take five minutes and really think through how quickly you need to respond and resolve the issue.

Death By MeetingPut an end to “on the fly” meetings. I’m talking about the ones where someone stops by your office or cube and asks if you have a minute. You don’t want to be rude so you go along with it. From now on, when people come to your office or cube, askthem, “What do you think is the best solution to the issue?” People typically know the answer and simply need validation from their peer or manager. This is an easy way to prevent a two-minute conversation from turning into a thirty-minute discussion.

Do a weekly meeting where you can discuss all of the issues. Just make sure that all of the decision makers are in the room and there is a clear purpose to the meeting with actionable items.

Email ManagementLet’s face it — we are dependent on email for communication. Unfortunately that means email is a killer when it comes to time management. When you are doing important tasks….i.e., those on your to-do list, turn off your email. Set up an auto responder to let people know you will call them back later. If you don’t do this, I guarantee your email will always interrupt you. The big question is, do you have the self discipline to ‘turn off’ your email? Try it!

To-Do Lists and your 2010 GoalsMost people use lists as a way to manage themselves and the tasks they need to complete. It’s easy to let the list get to 10+ items. When that happens we end up focusing on the wrong tasks. Keep the list to five items. The items on your daily to-do list should tie back into your annual goals for 2014. Whatever your personal goals are for the year, your list should be linked to those goals. Be consistent with the tasks you need to do top accomplish your tactical sales plan.

Plan for the UnexpectedOne thing we know for sure about working in the staffing industry — circumstances can change on a moment’s notice. Always build time into your daily plan for the unexpected. By planning for this each day you will avoid feeling reactive. There are always times of the year (or quarter) when the unexpected is more likely to fill your time than others. Plan accordingly.

Establishing Your Priority List: states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Ask yourself: “What is it that you and only you can do?” This is your priority list. Delegate everything else.

Ask yourself: “Am I doing what I do best and getting the best return for the company?”

Remember the Pareto Principle:

Time: 20% of our time produces 80% of our results

Counseling: 20% of the people take up 80% of our time

Services: 20% of the services bring in 80% of the profit

Reading: 20% of the book contains 80% of the content

Job: 20% of our work gives us 80% of our satisfaction

Donations: 20% of the people will give 80% of the money

Leadership: 20% of the people will make 80% of the decisions

Picnic: 20% of the people will eat 80% of the food!

People: 20% of the people will be responsible for 80% of the success

Take an End of Day AssessmentAt the end of the day, take a tally of how the day went and how your time was allocated. Consider tracking this in your calendar. At month’s end, look for the themes that happen time and again and consider how you can make improvements. Ask yourself:

– How much of myday was spent on proactive items versus. reactive tasks?– When did Iwork on the most challenging tasks of the day, morning, afternoon or evening? Did I complete it?– What time of day did I do my reactive tasks?– How much of my day was centered around proactive tasks?

Here’s a popular post that I found while doing some research on recruiting just for MY knowledge because you never know what the future holds. I thought I’d share these tips with you all and maybe it can help you out with your future recruiting. This can even be a little bit of a “reminder” for those of you who are successful recruiters. Who knows…but it’s worth a read because any little bit helps. 🙂

Strong sales skills — if you haven’t figured it out by now, recruiting is sales. If you disagree, you are in the wrong business. Not only do recruiters need to sell their clients (internal or external), but they need to sell candidates on opportunities and be able to articulate why company X is an employer of choice and why a particular opportunity is not just a great opportunity, but how it is the opportunity of a lifetime.

Ability to cultivate and build relationships — anyone can pull a name out of a database and place a call. It’s another thing to actually cultivate and build relationships with the candidates we recruit. Perhaps knowing a little about what makes them tick, what their hobbies are, engaging in a conversation rather than just following a script, etc. Social media, smart phones, and other communication platforms have built bridges straight into our personal lives. By creating a more open, friendly, and communicative relationship with candidates, the candidate experience will increase, making the recruiter and company stand out professionally and as an employer of choice.

Hunter’s mentality — there are so many ways to source for talent these days. There is an abundance of sites, networks, tools, and platforms all built in some fashion to make a recruiter’s life easier. But it is how each recruiter uses these tools that will make the difference. It all starts with the mentality of the individual. Recruiters are big-game hunters, and having the mindset to hunt and be relentless until the hunt is done is a priceless skill set. If a recruiter is going to sit at a desk, log in to Monster and keyword search all day — that is not the hunter mentality you want. You want someone who will use cold calling, social media, Boolean searches, networks, etc. in order to find the strongest and most-qualified individuals.

Big-picture thinking — simply focusing on single searches each day is great, but having the ability to see how candidates can fit into an organization, the potential value they can bring, or even knowing where a superstar candidate could fit in, even if there is no immediate position available, is invaluable. Moreover, keeping an eye on future tools, technology, and best practices and knowing what is coming down the pipeline will keep your company well versed and competitive in a tough talent market.

Strong follow-up skills — probably the #1 topic that irks me the most about recruiters – follow-up skills. How hard is it to return a call or an email — I will tell you that it is not hard at all nor does it take a severe amount of time to update a candidate, hiring manager, co-worker, etc. on events. I have heard all the horror stories of a recruiter (agency or corporate alike) calling someone frantically, building them up and setting them up to interview, only to never reach back out to the candidate again. All that does is breed negativity and it is not part of the relationship-building process what so ever.

Listening — anyone else ever had the recruiter-talk-your-ear-off presentation about how great they are, the database they have access to, successful placements, etc.? Recruiters need to listen first and talk second. Recruiters must possess the uncanny ability to listen and take a proper job order. Too many recruiters run their traps to no end. It’s annoying.

Consultative in nature — recruiting is a science and there are methods and processes. The majority of hiring managers need to be consulted on these procedures and processes in order to build long-term success and proper process flow. Good recruiters have the ability to advise and push back on their clients if need be. A good recruiter will act as a trusted advisor for their clients, and in return, clients will respect and act on given advice.

Personable and approachable — how many times do candidates call or meet a recruiter at a career fair and they are nervous on the other line or on the other side of the table. I love taking an approach opposite that which a majority of other recruiters take. I answer my phone calls and return emails. People will call me and are surprised that I even answered my phone. They are even more surprised that I am in a good mood, ask them how they are doing, thank them for their call, and take one minute of my time to let them introduce themselves and follow up with me. My mother always told me that I could catch more bees with honey than I can with vinegar.

There will be people reading this that say they don’t have the time to return calls or emails, that they can’t talk to everyone at a career fair, that their clients are too tough to work with — and to me they are all excuses. No one is perfect. I have probably missed an email or call in my time; however, we can all make a better effort to be better recruiters.

The next time you are reviewing your analytics and you see a high time-to-fill number or whatever data is important to you — put the brakes on and see if what you really need to do is recalibrate your recruiting team and get the right people on board first.

Here are some helpful interview questions to review before your interview. Create a unique response for each one. Always being prepared before an interview is most important.

1. Tell me about your greatest accomplishment on the job.

2.Tell me about a difficult situation you encountered at work and how you overcame it.

3. Give me three adjectives you would use to describe yourself and examples of you work style to support them.

4. Give me three adjectives you would use to describe your weaknesses/areas for improvement and the reasons why you feel you need to work on these.

5. If I was to ask a co-worker about you, how would they describe you on-the-job?

6. Tell me about a time where you were required wot work with a difficult person (i.e. client, coworker, manager, etc.). How did you handle the situation? What was the outcome?
7. If you were given a task to complete in an unrealistic time frame, what would you do?

8. If someone came to you with an enthusiastic, yet unrealistic request, how would you handle it?

9. Why are you looking to leave your current position?

10. What do you wan to get out of your next job?

11. Tell me about the best manager you ever had? Now tell me about the worst?

12. What are the three most valuable things you’ve learned while working in your current position?

13. What was the biggest mistake you’ve made on a job? How did you handle the failure?

14. What do you feel makes you successful in your current role? Give an example to support your success?

15. What do you think makes a company good to work for? What do you like about your current company? What could be better?

16. Do you prefer working alone or in teams? Give examples of how you have worked successfully both alone and in a team? what do you attribute your success to?

17. What are your own business philosophies – What do you feel must be present in a successful business?

18. What skills are you looking to develop in your next job? Why?

You should always have questions to ask-rewrite the questions in your own words…this way you can ask them in your interviews.

You want to Connect – Learn – Ask and Close

1. How did you join the company?

2. What has this company taught you?

3. What makes the department I’d work in successful?

4. I’ve done my research on the company, but I’d love to hear you describe the corporate culture here in your own words.

5. What makes this a great place to work? And since no company is perfect, what could be improved upon?

6. What traits do you feel a person needs in order to be successful at this company?

7. Can you give me an example of a recent hire that has been successful?

8. What are the three greatest strengths of this company? What are the three greatest strengths of the department I’d be working in?

9. If I could change add/change anything about myself and my experience to make me a better fit for the position and the company, what would it be?

10. What are the next steps in the hiring process?

When closing regardless of your style and how you choose to close the interview, there are some key points to keep in mind:

1. Leave your interviewer with the right picture of you. think of at least five skills or traits you want remembered after the interview.

2. Ask if there is anything else you can provide, such as references, background information or work samples.

3. State your interest in the position. Don’t be overly anxious, but act interested. Remember to mention the added value you can bring to the job.

4. Ask about the next step in the process. It’s important for you to know the next step so you can follow-up. Ask for the decision date.

5. Find out how to contact them. If you don’t hear back, you will need to know who to contact and whether they will accept calls to check the status.